Midweek Minute: I Didn't See That Coming!

Dear Friends and Family,
To say this past week has been a rollercoaster ride would be not do it justice...
Let me start back on last Saturday:

I was innocently eating some dinner when I felt a sharp pain in my mouth...you already see where this is going, don't you? The pain went away after a few minutes and I didn't think any more about it. Sunday afternoon rolled around and I woke up from my afternoon nap ritual to find pounding in my head. It felt like either my ear or my tooth but I wasn't sure which. I fell back asleep rather early Sunday night and woke up Monday morning still in pain but manageable....

Monday night is where is became interesting...I was in so much pain that I just sat on the couch all night watching movies, there was no point in going to sleep. Towards morning I got a tiny bit of sleep.

Tuesday morning, I was miserable but I knew I needed to go grocery shopping, there are 7 people in this house that demand to be fed once in a while! Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as a quick trip with a short list. Otherwise, I would have sent one of the older girls. Thankfully, Jordyn offered to drive me and help shop. As we walked through the store, the pain became so intense I thought I would pass out. Remember, I still wasn't entirely sure if it was my ear or my tooth. Up till now, I had tried every home remedy that normally works like my essential oils as well as over the counter pain meds etc...but nothing cut the pain.

We managed to get home and 15 minutes later I told Peter, I need to get to Urgent Care! If you know me very well, you know that I have a super high pain tolerance…which is probably what got me into this mess in the first place...I didn't feel the first tingling of pain like someone typically would. So Jordyn drove me to Urgent Care where despite the fact that I was crying after two hours of waiting, they said A) not an ear infection, decidedly an abscess on my tooth and B) they could do nothing for the pain because they weren't dentists. They gave me a shot of something that was supposed to help...supposed to. They did start me on antibiotics which was wonderful!

As Tuesday evening progressed, the pain became so severe that nothing touched it. The closest I could get to taking the edge off the pain was to take a super hot shower and let the water run over my face. So I did this on the hour pretty much all night long and through the morning till I got to the dentist.

Here is where I should tell you that by this time, my face was swollen as if I had a baseball in my mouth. From the time I was at Urgent care at 2pm with a tiny little bump that only I could feel till Monday at 11:30, my face had practically doubled in size.

After dealing with the changes the new year brought with insurance, I was finally taken back to get X-rays done. I felt so bad for the assistant that took the x-rays! I was in so much pain that I sobbed the entire time because she had to shove the film deep into the abscess to get near my tooth. My Dentist took one look at me and said, "You need that surgically removed."

Here, is where the miracles start. I was already worried when I saw the reaction of my dentist. I mean, I knew it couldn't be good, but for her to have the worried look in her eyes and to hear the whispering in the hall, I knew it wasn't positive news. God started answering prayers so fast I didn't even have time to pray!

Remember that I told you at the beginning that we were having problems with the switch in insurance? Well, apparently they were having a hard time getting a hold of the insurance company to find out what our benefits were. I didn't know till later when Peter told me, that they weren't even going to take me back to see the dentist till they could get ahold of someone. However, the office manager, who has known me for almost 15 years, apparently leaned over to the receptionist and told them to just get me back and we would deal with the financial part later.

By time the dentist was done seeing me, they had got in touch with the insurance company and got our benefits. The dentist said that she wanted me to get in as soon as possible and was going to refer me to two surgeons to see who could get me in first but it might be a few days. We were asked to go sit in the waiting room for a bit. The receptionist came out and started asking questions, the first one was wondering if we were willing to leave right that moment and travel 45 minutes away because there was a surgeon that wanted to see me. We said absolutely. A little while later, we were on the road.

We walked into the surgeon's office and the receptionist looked at me and said, "You must be Heidi!" I had regained a little humor and managed to say, "How could you tell?"

A few minutes later, I was back in a chair being looked at by the surgeon who said, "Looks like you are in pain. That needs to get out of there."

I feel so blessed that the Lord worked out everything to get this taken care of so swiftly. I have never been in this kind of pain in the past. Like I mentioned before, I have a super high pain tolerance and clearly something was going on with that tooth long before I felt it.

Surgery happened on Wednesday, so I am on day two of recovery. I am pretty sore and feel rather like a Mac truck hit me. But oh the relief of that agony that made me want to slam my head into a brick wall!

I need to give my family, especially the girls MAJOR kudos. They have been amazing this week in taking care of the boys and the house. I know Peter couldn't have done all he did to help me without having the girls take care of the boys and house like they did. I am remarkably blessed!

I suppose I could show you pics of my face, but really....you don't want to see them. I was a hot mess!

Praying you all have a wonderful weekend!
Heidi